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Good Morning Monday! Another week, another post! Go me!
I am really on a roll with these weekly update post things. LOL Not exactly sure what I have to talk about this week, but here goes…
So, last week I finished my short story. It’s 18.5K words, completely full of fluff and smut, and was a lot of fun to write. It took waaaay longer than expected, but RL and other mishaps got in the way. It’s called Perfect Catch, and is about two Aussie guys, best mates, Cal and Troy. They’re absolutely perfect for each other but their lives have never been sync, until now. They go away for a boys weekend of fishing, and suddenly its not about fishing anymore. 😉
Perfect Catch will be out in October – more on that at another time.
Blood & Milk survived edits (wooooot!) and I’ve sent it to another wonderful pre-reader, this time someone who lives in Tanzania. I’ve never had a book pre-read by so many people before! LOL But in this case, the more the merrier. Especially when those readers all have perspectives and experiences different to mine. Everything is still on track for ARCs to be released on June 10th, and for the release on June 23rd.
I have decided Blood & Milk will be exclusive to Amazon for the release, and the 90 day KU cycle that follows.
Cuore di Terra Rossa (the Italian translation of Red Dirt Heart) had a great release week! And Spencer Cohen Book One had a great first week on All Romance eBooks, hitting the best seller list!
I’m hoping to have the French translation of Cronin’s Key this week, and I’ll be uploading it as soon as it lands in my inbox 🙂 I’ve also seen the French covers for the translation of the Red Dirt Heart series, and they are FAB! The first book is due out in October, which is very exciting!
In other translation news, I’ve just organised to have RDH translated into German! This is incredibly exciting for me, as I’ve looked into the German market for some time. I’ll post more on that a little closer to release.
So, what’s happening this week? I’m starting something new! I’ll be starting on my overweight guy/personal trainer romance story. I had the first prologuey/chapter/thingy written in a notepad somewhere and now can’t find it! I’m pretty sure I remember how it went. LOL But that’s what I’m starting this week. I love the starting of a new book! I have no clue how long it will be, and I have no clue about what will happen in this story, whether it will be comedy or angst. Basically I don’t have any clue about anything really. I have no outline or plan, like normal, I’m just gonna start and see where it takes me. 🙂
This week, I will also be doing formatting, more edits and proofreading (for me and other authors) and I need to get my accounts in order – as it’s only four weeks until the end of financial year here in Australia, I haven’t started ANY financial spreadsheets for my accountant so far, and I need my tax lodged and returned before we head to America. And OMG isn’t that coming around quickly??
I swear, I need a personal assistant. And a house cleaner, and a nanny, and an ironing lady, and a personal chef… I used to say I need a clone, but I’m pretty sure if there was an identical me, I’d just tell myself to fuck off. LOLOL
On that note… until next week!
<3
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Good Morning Monday! What’s news this week…
My apologies for missing last week’s post – I was away (kids’ tennis, again) and we were that busy, I didn’t even take my laptop out of my bag. We actually had a weekend at home this weekend! OMG they’re a rarity these days, it’s just a shame the entire time was spent doing housework and other mundane, real-life chores (the glamorous life of an author/mother LOL).
This week, Spencer Cohen Book One came off Kindle Unlimited. His 90 day exclusivity to Amazon ended, so he’s also now available at All Romance eBooks and Smashwords and Apple, and has been approved for distribution to B&N, so I’ll post that link asap.
The Italian translation of Red Dirt Heart comes out this week! And even the title, Cuore di Terra Rossa, is gorgeous. I will post the links as soon as I have them!
I do love my Italian publisher, and highly recommend them to all my author friends. Triskell Edizioni have been wonderful to me, very professional and they love their authors. I can’t praise them enough. I have actually just signed the Spencer Cohen Series to be translated, and my Italian readers can expect to see them early next year. <3
In GRL news, my flights are booked and our itinerary is done! My family and I will be doing four weeks of touring the US and briefly into Canada (for three days lol) before GRL. I know the timing isn’t perfect, and I’ll be exhausted going into GRL, but it couldn’t be helped. My husband has a work conference on in Las Vegas mid-September, which left a four week gap in between. So, instead of coming home for those four weeks, we are seeing Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Boston, Quebec, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Washington DC, San Fran and LA, then finally on to Kansas City.
I’m busy getting the family part organised, while ignoring everything else I need to think about (like swag lol) for GRL. But don’t forget, if you want me to have signed books at GRL for you, you MUST pre-order them. You can find the order form HERE – and you have until September 1st to pay for them. 🙂
Blood & Milk is still on schedule for June 23rd. I have sent it to more beta-readers, with a different perspective on race and religion to me, looking for any possible red-flags, while my editor is working on it. In case you missed the cover reveal I did two days ago, here is the gorgeous cover Sara York made me. I found the photo of Damu ages ago and *had* to have it. Sara made it pretty for me 🙂
And on a different note, I’ve just finished my second week (sixth session) of crossfit. Everything hurts, but the pain is getting better. Kind of. LOL I do feel better for it though, even if my thighs feel like there are knives stabbing them and my arms are like cooked spaghetti. >.<
So, until next week…
<3
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*** COVER REVEAL *** (and a little excerpt)
Here it is! The gorgeous cover to my next release, Blood & Milk. Eeeeek!
I’m super excited (and extremely nervous) about this one. I wasn’t going to publish this book at all, but after an extensive beta-group read for race/cultural sensitivities from people all around the globe, and after a heartfelt plea from my Kenyan beta to please please publish it, the original release date of June 23rd still stands.
The blurb is unedited, so I won’t share that just yet.
Damu (pronounced Dah-mu) is on the cover, he is Maasai. I can’t wait for you all to meet him!
I’ll be posting more on why this book almost made the cutting room floor, and ultimately why it didn’t. I’ll also be sharing an interview with a lovely Kenyan-born lady who helped me with some of the finer points of research on Maasai lives and culture, and who gave me the final push to say yes to putting this book into production.
Blood & Milk is the story of Heath Crowley, an Australian man who finds himself living with the Maasai in Tanzania.
Here’s a tiny little (unedited) excerpt:
I stripped down too, completely naked and not caring for modesty, and dove into the water. It was cool and fresh, and felt heavenly against my skin. I didn’t realise how gritty I’d become. Sure, I’d dived into the water a few times in my time here, but never fully naked.
It was sublime.
Underwater, I raked my hands through my hair letting the water sluice through the strands to remove any grit and sand. Daily face washes, shaving and teeth brushing served its purpose, but a proper bath was unbeatable.
I’d forgotten what a shower felt like. And as amazing as the water felt, I didn’t miss running water. I didn’t miss electricity. I didn’t miss anything.
Except Jarrod.
I broke the surface, gasping for air. As usual, the memory of Jarrod squeezed my heart and crippled my lungs.
Damu laughed at me, oblivious to my struggle to breathe. And strangely enough, his laughter, his smiling face, calmed me. I exhaled with a rush and laid back, allowing myself to float, feeling my lungs expand and contract with every inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, until my panic attack passed.
Damu floated beside me and without a word between us, with a peace that soothed me, we floated naked in the water under the Tanzanian sky.
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Good Morning Monday! An outtake and a Kindle Unlimited Update.
Wow, these Mondays are coming around fast! Another busy week has gone by, and an even busier week ahead for me, but I remind myself that busy is productive… and exhausting and enough to drive me crazy LOL but here I am!
First, to celebrate getting the rights back to, and the re-release of Starting Point, I have added an outtake to my blog. You can read it HERE or find it in the Menu under Outtakes 🙂
Now for the Kindle Unlimited update. I have had quite a few readers contact me in the last few weeks asking if any of my older books will ever be added to KU. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of it, I don’t know why. About a year ago, I added my Blind Faith books to KU, given they were first released in 2012, and found them being read/borrowed/bought with a vengeance – which was fab! I can’t deny they found me new readers. So after these readers asked me about putting some other books on KU, I decided to add my Cronin’s Key trilogy to KU. They’ve been a little stagnant on other sites for a while, so here’s hoping they’ll find their way onto some Kindles they might not have otherwise.
I’m still debating adding my Red Dirt Heart Series to KU. Given it was released two years ago (OMG can you believe that?) it makes sense to broaden their readership. If I do add them to KU, I’ll have to do it soon – the ninety day cycle will end a month or so before I leave for the US, so I’ll be suuuuper busy with other things then and won’t really have the time to worry about re-adding books back to all other platforms.
At this point, Cronin’s Key will only be doing one cycle (90 days) on KU then will go back to other sites. This will depend on their success of course. If the KU market makes it viable for them to stay for a second cycle, then they will.
So, as of right now and for the next three months, the only place you can find the Cronin’s Key trilogy, is Amazon.
That being said, I’ve nominated my Spencer Cohen series to NOT do another cycle on KU. So, as their 90 day KU cycles expires, they’ll be added to all other platforms. Spencer One is June 14 (or thereabouts) Spencer Two is July 19, and Spencer Three is August 21.
And now for some translation news! Cronin’s Key 1 will be out in French later this month! And, Red Dirt Heart will be out in Italian later this month also!! *twirls* Red Dirt Heart will also be out in French later this year! I will post links when I have them 🙂
Until next week… <3
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Good Morning Monday! Podcasts and Cover Reveals…
It’s Monday again! Man, this year is flying. Can you believe we’re already in May? It’s just crazy.
And what a crazy week it’s been too!
I did my first ever podcast interview! Eeeeek!! Man, I was so nervous, but Kris at Romance Out Loud was just ever so lovely and professional. You can listen to the whole episode HERE and according to some people on Facebook, apparently I have a funny/cute accent LOL.
In the interview, I talked about how music influences my writing and how each main character has a song that reminds me of them. Then a lovely reader on Facebook (*waves to Dawn*) asked me what some of them were, so I thought I’d share them with you all.
Please note each link will take you to YouTube:
Isaac Brannigan – Better Than I Know Myself, by Adam Lambert
Thomas Elkin – New York State Of Mind, by Billy Joel
Cronin (particularly from CKIII) – I See Fire, by Ed Sheeran
Matthew Elliott – Hurricane, by Thirty Seconds to Mars
Spencer Cohen – Hallelujah, by Jeff Buckley and also Scars, by James Bay
Trent Jamieson (Learning to Feel) – The Red Strokes, by Garth Brooks
Harrison Haddon (Exchange of Hearts) – Fantaisie Impromptu, by Chopin
Charlie Sutton – Underneath, by Adam Lambert and also Bow River, by Cold Chisel and also The Meadow, by Alexandre Desplat (instrumental – I know it’s from Twilight New Moon, but I could always picture Charlie riding on Shelby through the desert to this song)
And I can’t really think of/remember what songs remind me of the Three’s Company boys, or Taxes and TARDIS. Not that they wouldn’t have had a song, but I just can’t remember it. When/if I remember, I’ll let you know. 🙂
Now, onto some new and exciting news!! I have a cover reveal for you! The very lovely and talented Reese Dante has made me a fabulous new cover for Starting Point. I had the rights return to me recently, and have had it re-edited. There is no new content. It will be available at all retail sites in the next day or two. I’ll provide links when I have them! <3
Here’s the cover. Isn’t it just beautiful?
Okay, so that’s it from me for today! I hope everyone is well and happy. Until next week…
<3
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Red Dirt Heart is coming to audio!!
I am so incredibly excited to announce that Red Dirt Heart will be my first ever audio!! As you may or may not know, being an Australian author who self-publishes, I was never able to use ACX (the audio division of Amazon) to get my books into the audio market. I mean, I have 30+ books, and NONE in audio. Even my books I have with a publisher will never be put into audio… but that’s a whole other conversation for another time.
Anywhoooo, I tried to outsource it myself, but got nowhere. I queried publishers in strict audio rights options, but they never even replied – not even a ‘sorry, but no’. I contacted several narrators who I thought might be able to help, but again, they never replied.
It was/is incredibly frustrating and I was ready to give up on it all together.
But then, with the help of RJ Scott and Love Lane Books, I had a spark of hope. Another author friend Nic Starr put me in touch with a narrator who could wrangle the Aussie accent, and things started to move forward.
RJ Scott’s presshouse, Love Lane Books, will be the platform on which this gets released, and the lovely Joel Froomkin has graciously agreed to give Charlie Sutton a voice.
I will post more when I know more, but for now, I’m so thrilled to say this is actually – finally – happening. <3
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Good Morning Monday! What’s new this week?
Well, the release of Spencer Cohen Book Three came and went, and I’d love to thank everyone who has read and reviewed! The responses and reviews have been lovely, and it makes my heart happy to know people love Spencer and Andrew as much as me. And a huge thanks to everyone who posted, shared, tweeted, liked, loved, commented on all forms of social media.
These boys got to #1 in SEVEN countries (US, UK, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada and Australia) !! And that is an incredible achievement, and proof that I do have the best readers in the world! I wouldn’t be able to do what I love, if it weren’t for you! And there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t appreciate you! <3
Like I’ve done with the first two books, I’ve created a soundtrack on Spotify for Spencer Cohen Book Three. You can find it HERE.
So, in other news for this week, I’m due to have the rights of Starting Point returned to me tomorrow!! At the moment, it is only Starting Point that returns to me, and my other titles with Totally Bound/Pride Publishing will stay with them for the duration of their contracts (approximately two years).
I’m also SUPER excited to announce I’ve engaged Reese Dante to redo the covers. Reese did the very original cover for Point of No Return (back in the old Silver Publishing days) which was my all-time favourite for that book, and given this series has had three covers already, I wanted to get back to the original theme. And what better way to accomplish that than to ask the cover artist who did the original art work. I can not wait to share the new cover to Starting Point with you all!! I’m sure you guys are gonna LOVE it!! <3
I finally managed to wrangle the first draft of Blood & Milk, and now I just need to fix it. Like really fix it. LOL It’s a hellamess, but I’m so excited and relieved to finally give these boys the ending they deserve. It finished at 85,000 words. Not sure where that will end up – I’d imagine I’ll need to add and delete quite a bit. I’m still on schedule for a June 23rd release.
I hope everyone has had a fabulous week! Can you believe we’re already at the end of April?? This year is just flying! Stay tuned for the cover reveals of Starting Point and Blood & Milk, AND some rather exciting audio news!!! 🙂
Until next week… <3
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Enter to Win a signed set of the Spencer Cohen Series!
In conjunction with Alpha Book Club, I’m giving away one SIGNED paperback set of “The Spencer Cohen Series” & 4 eBook Sets of the series! 5 Winners total!!! Each winner will get the ENTIRE 5+ star series!!!!
Amazon Global Book 1 – http://bit.ly/1Si0k9r
Amazon Global Book 2 – http://bit.ly/1YLQwoz
Amazon Global Book 3 – http://bit.ly/1NlHf63Check out Alpha Book Club reviews:
Book One:
http://alphabookclub.org/…/…/spencer-cohen-nr-walker-review/
Book Two:
http://alphabookclub.org/…/spencer-cohen-book-two-n-r-walk…/
Book Three:
http://alphabookclub.org/…/spencer-cohen-series-book-3-n-r…/TO ENTER:
All you have to do for a chance to win is ENTER HERE – please be aware the link will take you to Facebook.
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$25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!
Spencer Cohen Book Three is out today!!! And to help celebrate, I’m doing a $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!
To enter, you need to go to ENTICING JOURNEY BOOK PROMOTIONS where you’ll find the rafflecopter. It’s that simple.
BLURB:
Learning to be in a committed relationship has been easy for Spencer. In fact, too easy. Andrew has fit into his life seamlessly. Spencer’s let go of his insecurities and hang-ups, and he and Andrew are enjoying where things are headed.
For the first time in years, Spencer’s life is unbelievably perfect.
Andrew overthinks everything. So when Spencer gets a phone call from Australia, he’s certain Spencer will push him away.
But instead of driving them apart, maybe it will solidify what they already have. Maybe Spencer will depend on Andrew more than ever. Maybe the Spencer Cohen story will come full circle, and maybe, just maybe, Spencer will have the happily ever after he never thought possible.
<3
Universal link: myBook.to/SpencerBookThree
Some Release Day Reviews
“I highly recommend this series. You really can’t go wrong, it has everything you need in a book and more – 5+ Stars to this amazing series and to this book!” – Alpha Book Club
“Overall, this has become one of my favorite series…” – Reading Addict Mom’s Blog
“N.R.Walker read my mind and soul and gave me Spencer Cohen. I’m giving my second beyond five stars rating of the year, and I rarely do that ever.” – The Written Voice of Is
<3
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Good Morning Monday! It’s release week for Spencer Three!!
I was away last Monday, hence the no-post. Hope I’m forgiven. 😉
So what’s been happening this last week? Well, more tennis tournaments and travelling, five days of no writing at all, then trying reeeeeally hard to finish my WIP. Well, I didn’t finish it, but I’m super close. Currently Blood & Milk is at 75K words, and I estimate there’s another 5K to wrap up the final scenes. But, this coming week is a release week for me, so there might not be the focus on writing that I’d like. My MIL is also staying, the kids’ are on school holidays, and my house is always hellabusy.
Did I say release week?? Why, yes I did.
Spencer Cohen, Book Three is out this Thursday!! I can’t wait for you all to read the conclusion to Spencer and Andrew’s story. <3
The universal pre-release buylink is http://mybook.to/SpencerBookThree
That link should take you to your regional Amazon page. If not, the following links will get you there:
Blurb:
Learning to be in a committed relationship has been easy for Spencer. In fact, too easy. Andrew has fit into his life seamlessly. Spencer’s let go of his insecurities and hang-ups, and he and Andrew are enjoying where things are headed.
For the first time in years, Spencer’s life is unbelievably perfect.
Andrew overthinks everything. So when Spencer gets a phone call from Australia, he’s certain Spencer will push him away.
But instead of driving them apart, maybe it will solidify what they already have. Maybe Spencer will depend on Andrew more than ever. Maybe the Spencer Cohen story will come full circle, and maybe, just maybe, Spencer will have the happily ever after he never thought possible.
What else is happening this week? Well, writing madly, of course. As well as promos and giveaways to celebrate the release of Spencer Three (I’ll post more on that later), and I’ll be away from home for two days this week as well. Is it any wonder I don’t know what day it is? LOL
Oh, I’ve also approved the proof of Spencer Three in paperback, so that will be live soon as well. And I’m working on the Spencer Cohen Book Three soundtrack on Spotify to share with you all as well. <3
And, in more exciting news, my family and I are busy trying to plan our five week across-country trip to the US to include GRL in October!! It’s incredibly exciting, and I can’t wait to share more details as we get them!!
Until next week…
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